by Kyle Tucker, USA TODAY Sports

by Kyle Tucker, USA TODAY Sports

LEXINGTON, KY. - Kentucky forward Kyle Wiltjer is mulling a transfer, according to a strange pair of dueling open letters to fans released Monday evening.

Wiltjer's "letter to the Big Blue Nation," posted on the school's official athletics website, thanked the Wildcats' coaching staff, his teammates and the fans for the memories, including a 2012 national championship, before getting to the gist of it:

"Now as I head into my junior year, I recognize that my new and adjusted goals require me to make some very difficult upcoming decisions. â?¦ During this next year, I will be working on my body so that I am able to compete the way I know I can. I want to find a situation that will help me do this as well as play a more significant role, wherever that may be. Even though I might physically leave Lexington, I will never forget the support and kindness that everyone has shown my family and me."

Wiltjer, a 6-10 sharpshooter, is 15th on UK's career three-point percentage list (.390) and sank 90 threes in two seasons with the Wildcats. He averaged 10.2 points and 4.2 rebounds and was the Southeastern Conference's Sixth Man of the Year in 2013.

But the 2011 McDonald's All American lost his starting job after nine games last season and has averaged only 17 minutes per game at Kentucky. Playing time will be even harder to come by next season with eight freshmen, including six McDonald's All Americans, joining the roster.

Coach John Calipari said in a letter, posted on his personal website, that Wiltjer called him after returning from a recent trip to China, where he helped Canada's developmental national team go 9-0 at the Four Nations tournament, a prep for the World University Games. Wiltjer had 17 points in a win against Team USA and a double-double in the final game of that event.

"After playing with Canada, Kyle feels like he could have a more prominent role in another program than he might have with us next season," Calipari wrote. "In my mind, Kyle is going to be a professional player as soon as his body begins to change. He has a mentality, a skill set and the length to be a pro, but the maturity of his body has not caught up with the rest of his game yet. He knows that and he's working on that.

"Kyle went from being the seventh man on the national championship team to the Sixth Man of the Year in the SEC, and I felt like over the next few years he was going to develop into the player I know he will eventually become. Unfortunately, that may happen somewhere else."

That's where the two letters get weird. Neither says Wiltjer is definitively transferring. It's unusual for both coach and player to openly discuss a transfer while it's still being considered.

"It is difficult to put into words how hard it is to possibly leave," wrote Wiltjer, whose family lives in Portland, Ore.

"Kyle's choice to explore other options at another school disappoints me," Calipari wrote.

"... If he does choose to go somewhere else, that school will be very lucky."